


Say His Name

by ariel2me



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-10
Updated: 2013-01-10
Packaged: 2017-11-24 23:51:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/632872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariel2me/pseuds/ariel2me
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One shot from Stannis' POV, set during this scene in A Dance with Dragons:</p><p> </p><p>  <em>“R’hllor is with us,” said Ser Clayton Suggs. “Melisandre is not,” said Justin Massey. The king said nothing. But he heard. Asha was certain of that. He sat at the high table as a dish of onion soup cooled before him, hardly tasted, staring at the flame of the nearest candle with those hooded eyes, ignoring the talk around him.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Say His Name

> _“R’hllor is with us,” said Ser Clayton Suggs. “Melisandre is not,” said Justin Massey. The king said nothing. But he heard. Asha was certain of that. He sat at the high table as a dish of onion soup cooled before him, hardly tasted, staring at the flame of the nearest candle with those hooded eyes, ignoring the talk around him._
> 
> _~ A Dance with Dragons_

_R'hllor_ _is with us_ , he heard. Then another voice.  _Melisandre_ _is not_. Justin Massey, he thought. Of course. It  _would_ be Justin, who mouthed all the words and dutifully watched all the burnings, but in the end only believed what he could see with his own eyes. And Melisandre had  _done_  things, impossible things, terrifying things, they had all seen that.

Did he wish she was here with them now? The Northmen, with their tree god, would not like it, he knew. But it was not only about dueling gods. She was a woman, a woman with terrifying powers, and for some, Northmen or not, that was more terrifying than a new and foreign god.  _It is not pride_ , he told himself, again and again. Blackwater this was not, with the lords beseeching him to leave her, else the victory would be said to be hers, rather than his.

It was a delicate balancing this time – the northmen and their god; the Wall, with his own forces marching away left unprotected, except for the few remaining Black Brothers led by the boy commander. In the end it was  _her_  who made the decision to stay, and he had said nothing. Was he relieved? Or disappointed? He searched the flame again, and found no answer.  _Fool_ , he thought.  _Why would the Red God, or any god, know what is in my heart, if I do not know it myself?_

They were marching through the storm and the snow. Through the snow and the storm. Endless, enduring, unceasing. At times he thought it was the gods mocking him. No, not R'hllor; the Seven, the gods he did not believe any longer, the ones he had cast aside long before the Red God came.

 _The storm that killed your father and your mother, and changed your life._   The snow in  _that_  man's land. Because it was still  _his_  land, and  _his_ people, long dead as he might be. The man his brother loved and cherished above all else. The man whose home he's marching to now, through the storm and the snow, the price he had to pay for the Northmen's support.

 _Say it, say his name,_ a voice whispered.  _Ned_ , he whispered back, softly, if only in his head.  _No, not Ned, he was never Ned to me, the way he was Ned to Robert._

 _Lord Stark. Eddard Stark._  The unluckiest man in the Seven Kingdoms. Or maybe the luckiest. Was it better to know, or not know? The fate of your wife, your children. Did Ned fear for them, in that last moment before the blade fell?  _Of course_ , he thought. What man wouldn't?

Did he bargain with the gods? Curse his enemies? Wrestle with his convictions?

_Would I?_

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first ever ASoIaF fic, actually my first ever fanfic : ) Stannis is probably all sorts of OOC in this.


End file.
